Kaffaaraat of Fast

Kaffara Of  Fast

1: The Kaffarah of leaving out a fast of Ramadhan is to:

(a) free a slave, or

(b) fast for two months or

(c) feed sixty poor to their fill or give one mudd (= 3/4 kg.) of food-stuff, like, wheat or barley or bread etc. to each of them.

And if it is not possible for him to fulfil any of these, he should give Sadaqa according to his means and seek Divine forgiveness. And the obligatory precaution is that he should give Kaffarah as and when he is capable to do so.

2: A person who intends fasting for two months as a Kaffarah for a fast of Ramadhan, should fast continuously for one month and one day, and it would not matter if he did not maintain continuity for completion of the remaining fasts.

3: A person who intends fasting for two months as a Kaffarah for a fast of Ramadhan, should not commence fasting at such time when he knows that within a month and one day, days like Eid-ul-Azha will fall when it would be haraam to fast.

4: If a person who must fast continuously, fails to fast on any day in the period without any just excuse, he should commence fasting all over again.

5: If a person who must fast continuously, is unable to maintain the continuity due to an excuse beyond control, like, Haidh or Nifas or a journey, which one is obliged to undertake, it will not be obligatory on him/her after the excuse is removed, to commence fasting again from the beginning. He/she should proceed to observe the remaining fasts.

6: If a person breaks his fast with something haraam, whether it is haraam in itself, like, wine or adultery or has become haraam due to some reason like, any food which is normally permissible but it is injurious to his health, or if he has sexual intercourse with his wife during Haidth, he will have to observe all the three Kaffarah  as a recommended precaution. It means that he should:

1:set free a slave

2: fast for two months

3: and also feed sixty poor to their fill, or give one mudd of wheat, barley, bread etc. to each of them.

 If it is not possible for him to give all the three Kaffarah, he should perform any one Kaffarah which he can possibly give.

7: If a fasting person intentionally imputes lies to Allah or the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.), the recommended precaution is that he should give all the three Kaffarah as detailed above.

8: If a fasting person belches and swallows intentionally that which comes in his mouth, his fast becomes void, and he should give its qadha and Kaffarah also. And if the thing which comes to his mouth is haraam to consume, like, blood or some food which no more looks like food, and he swallows it intentionally, he will give the qadha of that fast, and as a recommended precaution, give all the three Kaffarah.

9: If a fasting person breaks his fast when someone unreliable informs him that Maghrib has set in, and he later learns that Maghrib had not set in, or doubts whether it had set in or not, it is obligatory on him to give qadha and Kaffarah.

10: If a person who has intentionally invalidated his fast travels after Zuhr or before Zuhr to escape the Kaffarah, he will not be exempted from the Kaffarah. In fact, if he has to proceed unexpectedly on a journey before Zuhr, even then it is obligatory for him to give Kaffarah.

11: One should not be negligent about giving Kaffarah. But, it is not necessary to give it immediately.

12: If Kaffarah has become obligatory on a person and if he fails to fulfil it for some years, no increase in the Kaffarah takes place.

13: hen a person is required to feed sixty poor by way of Kaffarah for one fast, and if he has access to all of them, he cannot give to any one of them more than one mudd of food, or feed a poor man more than once, calculating it as feeding more than one person. However, he can give to a poor person one mudd of food for each member of his family, even if they may be minors.

14: If a person offering qadha of a fast of Ramadhan intentionally breaks his fast after Zuhr, he should give food to ten poor persons, one mudd to each, and if he cannot do this, he should observe fast for three days.

15: If a person does not give the qaza of his fast until the next Ramadhan, he should give 750 grams of food (wheat or bread or rice) to the poor for each missed day.

These laws are according to Aayatullah Sistani's Fataawa.